Sri Lanka and their winless T20 World Cup so far that has confirmed their elimination from the tournament already.
Sri Lanka head coach Rumesh Ratnayake has described his team’s performance at the T20 World Cup as “not acceptable”.
The Sri Lankans entered the World Cup with high expectations after an outstanding last 20 months, but they have lost all three of their games and are unable to advance out of their group.
After the last T20 World Cup, Sri Lanka has won series in South Africa and England, gone undefeated in the World Cup Qualifiers in Abu Dhabi. They also defeated Pakistan and India en route to winning the Asia Cup. However, in the opening week of the competition, Sri Lanka suffered defeats at the hands of both those opponents and the reigning champions, Australia, which Ratnayake attributed to general underperformance.
“It was bad playing through and through this tournament,” he said after Sri Lanka lost to India by 82 runs. “They’ve been doing poor cricket, and that is not acceptable. We’ve been talking about it, we’ve tried to come out of it and we’ve tried various things. We’ve been fearlessly doing things, freely doing things. I think the skill has failed us when it has been really important.”
Ratnayake had to be referring to Sri Lanka’s batting, even if he did not state it explicitly. Whether they are chasing or batting first, they have not scored more than 100 in any of their three innings. Their overall performance has closely mirrored that of their skipper. So far in the tournament, Chamari Athapaththu has been removed for ten runs in single figures in every innings. In sharp contrast to the previous two World Cups in South Africa and Australia, where she scored over 100 runs in every event, this World Cup return is her poorest.
“From the second match up to the fifth match [in Ireland], there were situations where we were on top and we faltered,” Ratnayake said.
“Our preparation was really good back home,” he said. “We played on various types of wickets. We simulated some of those similar situations, but winning those moments, winning those appropriate situations. The decision-making along with the skill hasn’t been backed up. The skill did not come through as it did as you said in the finals of the Asia Cup. So that’s something which we need to work on, rethink and come back.”